The present application relates to techniques and/or systems for cleaning a portion of a shroud (e.g., within and/or adjacent a scanning view) of a radiographic examination device. It finds particular application with computed tomography (CT) scanners that are used in industrial applications (e.g., such as in the lumber industry), but it also relates to other types of radiographic examination devices (e.g., line scanners, projection scanners, etc.) and/or other applications (e.g., medical, security, etc.) where debris (e.g., particulates, fluid, etc.) may accumulate between an object under examination and a detector array and/or between the object under examination and a radiation source of the radiographic examination device.
Radiographic imaging systems, or more generally, radiographic examination devices, such as projection radiography systems, computed tomography (CT) systems, line scanners, etc., provide information, or images, of the inside of an object under examination (e.g., interior aspects of an object under examination). That is, an object under examination by the radiographic examination device is exposed to radiation, and one or more images are formed based upon the radiation absorbed by the object, or rather an amount of radiation that is able to pass through the object. Typically, highly dense objects absorb (e.g., attenuate) more radiation than less dense objects, and thus an object having a higher density, such as a bone or metal object, for example, will appear differently than less dense objects, such as fatty tissue or clothing, for example.
A detector array, generally positioned opposite a radiation source from which radiation is emitted relative the object under examination, is configured to detect radiation that traverses the object under examination and convert such radiation into signals and/or data that may be processed to produce the image(s). Such an image(s) may be viewed by security personnel to detect threat items (e.g., weapons, etc.), viewed by medical personnel to detect medical conditions (e.g., cancerous tissue), and/or viewed by industrial analyst to identify application specific features. For example, a lumber mill may use a radiographic examination device to identify knots in a tree and/or a butcher may use a radiographic examination device to identify fat in meat. In this way, the cuts to the lumber or to the meat can be improved to reduce the amount of valuable lumber and/or meat that may otherwise be wasted, for example.
While the applications for radiographic examination devices are nearly endless, implementation challenges have arisen that make it difficult to effectively utilize radiographic examination devices in some applications. For example, in dirty and/or dusty environments (such as lumber mills), debris (e.g., wood chips) can accumulate between the object under examination and the detector array and/or between the object under examination and the radiation source. Further, even in more sterile environments, such as meat processing plants, fluids (e.g., blood) and/or particulates may accumulate within a scanning view and/or around an examination region of the radiographic examination device. Such debris, fluids, etc. may interfere with the radiation, causing aspects within the object to be mischaracterized (e.g., as a knot, lean meat, etc.), and/or reducing the quality of resulting images/information acquired from the radiographic examination.